Ball in general, life on the road… on this blog, either you do or you don't.

Sunday evening tidbits: K.Greene moving to his right

It’s another lovely night in Cleveland, following a terrific day. Your faithful correspondent, joined by friend/colleague/competitor D.Goold of the Post-Dispatch, made an afternoon run to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and it was again excellent. Highly recommended.

* Khalil Greene will return to Memphis to get some work at third base. TLR was a bit cagey about the whole thing, but there was this quote that laid it out pretty starkly: “When he’s ready to get here as a player, he needs to be ready to play third base.”

The Cardinals have understandably been pleased with what they’ve been getting from the shortstop position with Greene out. This allows them to keep playing Brendan Ryan (and perhaps Tyler Greene, depending on what move they decide to make once K.Greene is activated), while also providing another option at third base.

* Kyle Lohse began a throwing program today, playing catch from about 90 feet. He said he’s almost entirely symptom-free in his recovery from a right forearm injury. He’ll keep ramping up his throwing as long as he feels good, but no date has even been set for a throw off the mound, never mind a return to game action.

* The Cardinals won’t get any favors when the Tigers come to town later this week. Detroit will roll out three imposing starting pitchers: Justin Verlander on Tuesday, Edwin Jackson on Wednesday and Rick Porcello (remember him?) on Thursday.

* Bill Lubinger of the Cleveland Plain Dealer had a piece on Dave Duncan run today, and it’s worth checking out for Duncan’s insights on many of the great pitchers who have worked with him. It even includes a video interview. Follow this link to give it a look.

* Welcome to the newest blogger with the Cardinals: Rick Ankiel. The first entry in his new MLBlog went up today, and you can visit Rick’s blog by following this link.

* Time for my periodic reminder, while we’re linking to things. I talk ball over at Twitter. Follow me there at Twitter.com/MatthewHLeach.

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11 Comments

Looks like KGreene has been or is near to being moved into the infamous TLR dog-house for infielders. What the heck, KG can always look to Adam Kennedy as a role model and assurance that there can still be a life for infielders once they leave the Cards.

Great Khalil is moving to 3rd..now his bad glove will go to a position that he is not familiar and his bat will be re-inserted taking over for someone that is much better offensively then him. What a BUST this joke who can’t handle the stress of making $6 million a year has been!

Slata4, no disrespect or anything, but I kind of disagree. Defensively wise, Brendan Ryan has been our best Short Stop, with Tyler Greene being our second best Short Stop. Of Course, Brendan Ryan has also been our best 2nd baseman, with Skip Schumacker actually being pretty bad with a negative UZR and a negative WAR. So this would be our best Depth Chart:

Well honestly I’m glad your not managing this team because under your Depth Chart Ryan Ludwick sits everyday and Brian Barden (who is currently in the minors) starts everyday. You can go with UZR and WAR all you want I go with what I actually see from watching them everyday and for a career outfielder Skip has been excellent. Skip has made 2 errors all year at 2nd when one of them should of been charged to Brendan Ryan or Yadi on that ball that Yadier Threw where no one was covering 2nd. My Point that you never responded too was we are putting a train wreck of a player at 3rd instead of going out and solidifying it with an actual good player. The Thurston (who in my mind has been our best 3rd basemen) Barden, Greene (any of them) Experiment at 3rd is over for me, it’s time to go and get a real bat since we have been missing a Real bat there all year (Glaus) With this current selection of guys here is the depth chart..

I recently watched the Memphis Redbirds play Portland on TV and was VERY impressed with Clayton Mortensen. He had some nasty stuff! I have not seen too many Cardinals pitch that good.
How far along is Clayton from making it to the Cards?

Whoa guys,
Look the real topic should be why is this organization having to change guys from their original position to another?? Skip should be the starting LF, not 2b, we have better people to play there, period. I like Rick Ankiel but listen, there is a reason why only Babe Ruth changed from pitching to hitting in the Majors, it’s just too hard. I applaud the Cardinal’s organization, for giving Rick another chance, we all felt some serious empathy for they kid, and want him to do well, but let’s face it he is not a MLB hitter. We are way too Left-handed, and of those only Colby and Skip should be hitting v. Lefties. Duncan should not be playing everyday, only pich-hitting and spelling Pujols @ 1st.
Look TLR wants guys to be able to play multiple positions, he likes those kinda guys, covets them, but in the long run they don’t pan out. Duncan really is the same with pitchers, Motte (C to Rp), Wellemeyer, etc. What should worry Cardinal fans is that we are not developing young talent while these guys are at the helm, and if we do they are traded away before establishing themselves here.
Anyone notice that when TLR makes a double switch it looks like a chinese fire drill? There’s no chemistry on this team, we can’t blame the loss of Troy Glaus for all of this madness day in day out. This organization pinned it’s hopes on players like Duncan, Ankiel, K. Greene and Ludwick , who have never proved they can consistently stay healthy one and put up numbers year and year out.
It’s what we got…., crapshoot to rely on guys, who have no proven track records.

jr_hik, was Ankiel not a MLB hitter in ’07-’08, with 36 HR and 110 RBI in less than 600 ABs? If not, that doesn’t say much for the state of NL pitching. Over the last ten days, he shows signs of being that hitter again. Schumaker has improved tremendously at second base in a relatively short time. Didn’t you see the plays he made the other night? He saved at least one run, maybe more. And what do you mean saying we are not developing young talent? Rasmus, Perez, McClellan, T. Greene, Boggs, Walters, the list goes on and on. 13 rookies have played for this team so far this season. Even Wainwright, Ludwick, Duncan, Ankiel, Molina, Schumaker, Motte, and Wellemeyer are relatively young players. What we lack are veterans, other than Carpenter, Pujols, and a couple of the pitchers.

I rip TLR as much as the next Cardinal fan but cutting on Ankiel is silly and dumping on Schumaker is irritating… Ankiel’s shown too much to simply dismiss, he’s cold but warming and that’s good… w.r.t Schumaker, the problem is that they didn’t go get the O-Dog who was available cheap and to Dodgers have gotten in a steal and jerked Kennedy (who you don’t ave to love to think that he didn’t deserve the treatment he got) around in the process… he’s learning fast, getting better, hitting .300 and busting his hump, to my mind real Cards fans don’t dump on players like that.

KG was a risk, you need to take risks, this one didn’t pan out. Maybe they didn’t do their due diligence, I don’t know but I can see how the positives seemed to outweighed the negatives at the time… though I couldn’t understand not giving the job to Ryan and finding a batting instructor who could help him out. Other teams wear modern pitchers (who can’t throw more than 100 pitches w/o losing their mental edge) out by making them throw strikes, our hitting coach either hasn’t recognized that or can’t get Duncan, Ankiel and Ludwick not to swing at the first pitch, get themselves in a hole, half-panic and lame out.

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